Caity Simmers continues to prove that she is the one to beat as the WSL Championship Tour passes the midway point

As the World Surf League athletes reach the halfway point this week at the Western Australia Margaret River Pro, Caitlin Simmers is leading the pack. Simmers is currently wearing the yellow leader's jersey and has won 50 percent of completed events so far in 2024.

At just 18 years old, the young American is quickly becoming a fan favorite and a likely candidate for a title run. This is Simmers' second year on the WSL Championship Tour, last year she finished her year in fourth. This year the nerves have subdued a bit and Simmers has shown that she is ready to make a run for it.

"Yeah, I guess last year I was coming into the event just super worried about the cut and pretty anxious about that," she said. "So this year is definitely a different story and yeah, just try not to let it get to my head and keep thinking about it the same. I’ve just been more comfortable this year. Last year was my first year and I wasn’t really prepared for the highs and lows you get on this tour. This time around, I’m a bit more ready for it. I'm just more expecting it and more comfortable in certain situations and yeah, I just feel good this year. Definitely still getting my head around it though."

The tour kicked off at the historic Banzai Pipeline on Oahu Island, Hawaii. The event is notoriously dangerous with the wave height reaching over 12 feet at times. For years the women's WSL Hawaiin event was held at a different location, citing the dangerous conditions at Pipe. Last year the women were able to showcase their skills right alongside their male counterparts, the results were beyond entertaining. This year it was the female competitors that stole the show, with Simmers leading the charge.

"I would probably say it was Pipe just because of how crazy that wave is," Simmers said of her fondest memory of the tour so far this year. "It's just the fact that you don't get waves in the free surf and it's one of the most scariest waves in the world. It really does make my heart beat really fast, even like thinking about it. Like, it's so scary, and just how scary the free surfs are with like, you have 100 plus people out, and then the wave itself is so fast and everything happens so fast there. You could blink and the wave will already be passed and you're like, oh, I should have gone on that wave. So I feel like just doing good there, just since it makes me so scared and I ended up winning, it was really, it was a big relief."

Simmers topped all the female competitors that day in the water at Pipe. It was her first win of the season but she has no plans of slowing down. In the water immediately following her win, she proclaimed that "Pipeline's for the f--king girls," and has not looked back. Fans are witnessing a changing of the guard in many ways in the female competitive surf scene. Former champions such as Stephanie Gilmore and Carissa Moore have decided to step away from competition this year and the young guns with Simmers leading them have shown up to steal the show.

"Yes, I think that's been the talk of the tour lately," she said. "It's been like the new school, the new people on tour and the younger generation. But I feel like it's that special time in surfing where it's kind of the in-between of that. Like, there's the girls that have been on tour and that are way more experienced with competing and they definitely are a lot more knowledgeable about it. So they have that edge over us. In the first two events, it was kind of, the younger girls were showing their stuff, but then in Portugal, it switched. So I feel like it'll go like that for this whole year and maybe a few more years to come. So it's pretty special to be in that where it's like you have both of those, those different dynamics going on. Yeah. It's special to be a part of it, for sure. it's an interesting time in women surfing."

Simmers and the other WSL competitors will continue their quest for the WSL final event this week at the Western Australia Margaret River Pro. The field of women will be cut to ten following this event in Western Australia. Fans can tune in to the conclusion of the event on the World Surf League app or at WorldSurfLeague.com